UNDERSTANDING TEACHER ROLES

 UNDERSTANDING TEACHER ROLES

A common opinion floating around is teachers are ‘enjoying’ holidays while their counterparts put in hard labour through the day and throughout the year. It is always a practice to ‘assume’ that only ‘our clan’ struggles while all others have a bed of roses. [Grass is always greener on the other side [of the fence]. Such a notion exists, as the viewers look at the work hours and not at the nature or intensity of work. Let me make it clear that we need to consider only those who abide by the norms of work; we need not take into reckoning the violators who enjoy patronage of ‘power centres’ in any system. It is true of all avocations across the spectrum.

Teacher positions from primary to tertiary level of education handle live, responsive children/ youth who are prone to anger or emotional outbursts at the slightest pretext. They can never be treated like inanimate files or projects.  Also, they do not readily abide by time stipulations specified for completion of an assignment; but the authorities would insist on the teachers’ prompt submission of data on evaluation or assessment of progress. Generation of such information   demands critical scrutiny of every individual’s profile of participation, neatness of execution and the presentation of relevant items for careful evaluation. Careful evaluation means patient scrutiny of significant parameters as well as if [s]he is abiding by the time-frame fixed.

The administration wants numeric data of evaluation and not a qualitative report. Discharging of these requirements can happen only after the relevant segments in lessons are appropriately appraised and the students suitably sensitized. A systematic teacher can ill afford to ignore student-difficulties in harnessing the requirements expected of him /her. The items presented above shall never be a hindrance on the teacher’s daily schedules of teaching. Monumental patience alone can help teachers’ survival and every genuine teacher richly deserves the sympathy of all stake-holders.

Now, parents -please consider the following questions in the interest of your own child whom you peg your hopes on -for his/ her ascension to respectable position in office or profession. I know you are a highly educated person -far superior to the teachers handling your child/ children. Every day can you devote 30 minutes each to your children and ‘make’ them understand the passage in a text or work out Arithmetic piece for apt learning under the affection-showering parent like your good self?

 Why not try it in right earnest and gather first- hand experience of teaching kids at home? Boys and girls of std.VIII or above would be an altogether different proposition to think of. That being so, handling students of UG or PG courses in college or University would be far beyond your scope to venture. [Yes, you are adequately qualified with M.Tech or MBA or Ph. D in a field]. The issue turns complex if we realize that children view you as a parent and do not bestow the same kind of revered response they show on to learning from a teacher. To be a teacher- a worthy one at that is no mean feat. The effort of a good teacher is truly complex and vibrant. It is all-too easy to scorn off teacher profession as of irrelevance on the surmise of modern learner-tools/ gadgets like CDs, pre-packed lessons etc; All of them put together cannot replace a genuine teacher in flesh and blood.

Prof. K. Raman